Laurence Fox, the former actor and self-style “anti-woke” campaigner, has lost his deposit in the London mayoral election after receiving less than 2 per cent of votes.
Mr Fox, who set up his Reclaim Party to run in the race and campaigned on a platform of scrapping the coronavirus lockdown, won 47,634 ballot papers – 1.9 per cent of votes – in Thursday’s election.
As a result, he has lost his £10,000 deposit paid to London Elects, the Greater London Authority team responsible for organising the election of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
Candidates must secure 5 per cent of votes or higher to retain their deposit.
Mr Fox is not the only candidate to lose his deposit. Liberal Democrat Luisa Porritt, Piers Corbyn, Count Binface, Mandu Reid of the Womens’ Equality Party, and Peter Gammons of Ukip also waved goodbye to their £10,000.
Labour candidate Sadiq Khan, who won his second term as the mayor of London, secured 55.2 per cent of the vote in the second round of counting. He has promised an expansion of the ULEZ low-emissions zone, as well as more affordable homes in the capital and greener jobs in the city’s post-Covid rejuvenation.
Mr Fox had sought to wage a culture war against Mr Khan during his election campaign, saying: “Someone needs to unlock London now, and I can tell you one thing: Sadiq Khant. And Sadiq Won’t. Sadiq Khan is ashamed to be British.”
The Lewis actor finished in sixth place behind Niko Omilana, whose manifesto included ideas such as “all racists will have their teeth removed”, “to have to price of Fredos lowered back to 5p” and “to introduce stop and serve, which will include free school meals”.
Fox took to Twitter to say he is “profoundly moved” by those who voted for him, and congratulated both Sadiq Khan and Shaun Bailey.
